19 May 2016

Nations learn AFC U-19 Women’s Championship qualifying fate

Kuala Lumpur: A host of nations discovered the teams standing between themselves and a ticket to the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship 2017 finals when the competition’s official qualifying draw was held in Malaysia on Thursday.

Teams: Australia, Thailand (expressed an interest to host), Uzbekistan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Vietnam (expressed an interest to host), Jordan, Myanmar, Chinese Taipei, Palestine, India, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Singapore, Kyrgyzstan, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Philippines and Tajikistan (expressed an interest to host).
The top four teams in the 2015 edition of the AFC U-19 Championship in China – Japan DPR Korea, Korea Republic and China PR – received a direct qualification to the tournament leaving the 18 teams above to battle it out in the qualifiers. The seedings for the draw were based on the rankings of China 2015 while teams who did not take part in 2015 will be unranked.Draw ResultGroup A: A1 Australia A2 Jordan A3 Lebanon A4 Singapore A5 Northern Mariana IslandsGroup B: B1 Uzbekistan B2 Chinese Taipei B3 Hong Kong B4 Tajikistan (hosts) B5 PakistanGroup C: C1 Thailand (hosts) C2 Myanmar C3 Palestine C4 Kyrgyzstan
Group D: D1 Islamic Republic of Iran D2 Vietnam (hosts) D3 India D4 Philippines
Each group will play a one-round league in a centralised venue and the winner from each group (total four teams) will qualify to the finals (eight teams in total).Match ScheduleFor Groups with four teams:Matchday 1: 1v4, 2v3Matchday 2: 4v2, 3v1Matchday 3: 1v2, 3v4For Groups with five teams:Matchday 1: 3v2, 5v4Matchday 2: 4v1, 5v3Matchday 3: 1v5, 2v4Matchday 4: 2v5, 3v1Matchday 5: 4v3, 1v2The qualifiers will be held from October 29 to November 6, 2016.